If you love red velvet cake, this easy one-bowl red velvet cookie recipe has your name written all over it. The cookies have just the right balance of crispy edges, soft middles, and big chocolate flavor, with the prettiest shade of red in the land and crunchy sparkle from sanding sugar. In addition to requiring no special equipment, you won’t need to refrigerate this cookie dough or let it rest before baking, making it perfect for when you need a cookie right away. Gel food coloring works best to achieve the deep red color—plus, it won’t affect the texture of the final cookies the way liquid food coloring does (if the dough is too wet, the cookies will spread upon baking, resulting in less chewy cookies with crackle-less tops—a tragedy on both fronts). And while any brand of sanding sugar is fine, we’ve found that the Betty Crocker brand delivers the most vibrant, sparkly finish (you’ll definitely end up with red-stained fingers no matter which sugar you use, but that’s a sacrifice we’re willing to make). —Jessie Sheehan
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What you’ll need
Bamboozle Nesting Bowls
$60 At Amazon
Silicone Spatula
$13 At Amazon
Scale
$26 At Amazon
Whisk
$10 At Amazon
Wire Cooling Rack
$18 At Amazon
Recipe information
Yield
Makes 16 cookies
Ingredients
1½
1
2
1½
⅔
1
1
2
2
½
Preparation
Step 1
Place racks in upper and lower thirds of oven; preheat to 350°. Vigorously whisk 1½ cups (packed; 300 g) light brown sugar and 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted, slightly cooled, in a large bowl until lightened in color and smooth and glossy, about 30 seconds. Whisk in 2 chilled large egg yolks and 1½ tsp. vanilla extract. Adding one at a time and whisking after each addition, sprinkle in ⅔ cup (54 g) unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder, 1 tsp. baking soda, and 1 tsp. Diamond Crystal or ½ tsp. Morton kosher salt. Whisk in 2 tsp. red gel food coloring, then add 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour and fold in with a rubber spatula just until the last streak of flour disappears (be careful not to overmix).
Step 2
Pour ½ cup red sanding sugar (preferably Betty Crocker; about 2 oz.) into a small shallow bowl. Divide dough into 16 equal portions (about 3 Tbsp. or 55 g each) and roll each portion into a ball. Roll each ball in sanding sugar to evenly coat, then divide between 2 parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 2" apart.
Step 3
Bake cookies, rotating baking sheets top to bottom and front to back after 6 minutes, until puffed up and tops begin to crack, 12–14 minutes. Let cookies cool on baking sheets 5 minutes (they will collapse as they cool), then transfer to wire racks and let cool completely.
Do ahead: Cookies can be baked 3 days ahead. Store airtight at room temperature, or freeze in a resealable plastic bag for up to 1 month.
Leave a Review
Reviews (24)
Back to Topi made this 3 times and the dough would not have any color and the dough was dry and crumbly .
Anonymous
3/26/2022
Same experience as the other reviewer, this dough is very dry and did not spread out on the pan at all as it was baking. I ended up with dense, kind of dry, kind of bland chocolate biscuits. If I had to try this recipe again, I'd guess leaving in at least one of the egg whites would probably help a little bit but honestly I'd rather just find a different recipe, there are plenty out there for this sort of thing.
Anonymous
3/27/2022
Made these last night and they were very delicious, cake-like cookies! I got the impression that they would be too dry prior to adding in the flour, and based on the other reviews here I decided to add back the separated egg whites. Ended up with a great consistency at the end!
Jordan
Seattle
3/28/2022
The conversion from cups to grams is incorrect for flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder (off by anywhere from 2 to to 20 grams)
Baker
3/30/2022
Exactly what my friends have said. They are beautiful, taste yummy and drastically need more moisture. Add in 1-2 egg whites and they are perfect!
Jessie
Colorado
4/3/2022
I made these exactly as written...to the gram. They turned out perfectly. Do not need any additional liquid in the form of egg whites or other. Not even remotely too dry. In fact, I let the dough chill for a bit to firm them up. Not sure what others are doing wrong that they are ending up with "dry" dough...are they not melting the butter as it's called for in the recipe? Not scaling the ingredients? I've been baking over 40 years and professionally as well. Please try as the recipe writer intended...you won't be disappointed.
Anonymous
Chicago
4/4/2022
First off, I love baking anything but cookies. These cookies came together so well and they tasted so good I almost ate one besides my test cookie. I also used duck egg yolks so maybe that is why they are so moist and delicious. I think I will make another batch.
Anonymous
Dayton, Tn
5/22/2022